Cigarette ignites fire that burns man in wheelchair

Cigarette ignites fire that burns man in wheelchair

21 October 2010

published by www.orlandosentinel.com


USA –  A wheelchair-bound man discarded a cigarette Tuesday afternoon and it ignited a blaze that caught his wheelchair on fire, authorities said.

Ormond Beach firefighters were en route about 5 p.m. to a grass fire in the 600 block of S. Atlantic Avenue when they were notified that there was a victim in a wheelchair on the fire, Ormond Beach spokeswoman Loretta Moisio said.

The fire was in an empty lot and involved grass, brush and palm trees, she said. Firefighters initially did not find the victim.

The fire was moving quickly toward some nearby townhomes before firefighters extinguished it.

The victim, identified by police as 53-year-old Kurt Lyons, whom they said was a transient, was then found around the corner with officers from the Ormond Beach Police Department and Volusia County Beach Patrol, Moisio said.

He told firefighters he was smoking a cigarette, which he thought he had extinguished before tossing it into the brush. Moisio said. He said it rapidly ignited and caught his wheelchair on fire.

He was taken by ambulance to Halifax Health Medical Center in Daytona Beach and later transferred to Orlando Regional Medical Center where he was incritical condition this afternoon.

 


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